Gaito Gazdanov in August, 1923.

Source:
Society of friends of Gaito Gazdanov: The Photo Album:
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Gaito Gazdanov's Paris / 44

About Gaito Gazdanov

George Ivanovich (Gaito) Gazdanov (1903-1971) fled his native Russia after the civil war of 1919-1920. He had left school at 16 to join the anti-Bolshevik White Russian army and served as a machine gunner on an armoured train.

He enlisted less out of political conviction than out of a romantic urge to join the underdogs (the Whites were clearly losing the war). As a result of this quixotic impulse he found himself evacuating to Turkey a year later with the remnants of General Wrangel’s forces.

Gazdanov lived in Constantinople (Istanbul) for a while, attending school there, and then moved to Bulgaria where he completed his high-school education. He arrived in Paris in 1923.